Listen to this excellent interview with David Bell, by Julian Vigo @_JVigo at @SavageMindsMag. There is so much to quote in here, we will give you a taster.
"This isn't really about affirmation it's about collusion."
"You've colluded with the terror in the child and colluded with a kind of disgust with their changing bodies."
(These children) "are highly disturbed...and the way they've come to believe to get out of the terrible state they're in is not to think about their minds but to change their bodies."
"Children came with many complex problems. All these problems were cast aside and everything was rebranded in terms of being a gender problem."
On gender identity conversion therapy: "If that became law it would do terrible damage...that's an invasion of the clinical space by political ideology."
Don't take our word for it, listen to the interview, there is much, much more from David Bell which should be required listening for government, policy makers, schools and anyone involved with the care and safeguarding of children and young people.
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The report argued the service was "facing a crisis of capacity" to deal with an ever-increasing demand and it should "take the courageous and realistic action of capping the numbers of referrals immediately".
"Several staff have confirmed to the BBC most GIDS employees were never told of the recommendations."
"The report's findings were shared only during a meeting of the senior team."
The Sandyford clinic in Glasgow claimed puberty blockers were "fully reversible" even though they knew in 2017 of the risks. They join a list of those who have given false information to children, from NHS England to Polly Carmichael. This is a scandal. thetimes.co.uk/article/health…
Officials "recognised that the long-term impacts of hormones known as puberty blockers were not known but could affect bone density and stunt growth. Despite this, a leaflet published by the health board until last year said that taking blockers was considered “fully reversible”"
A Glasgow health official admitted that “Uncertainties also exist regarding the effect of puberty suppression on growth and adult height, the psychosocial problem of delayed puberty and possible effects on brain development."
It is well understood that adolescent girls are susceptible to 'contagion' of sudden, new symptoms. This knowledge is not applied to the explosion in trans-identified teenage girls but the parallels are striking and unavoidable.
Thread. thetimes.co.uk/article/teenag…
Sudden onset tics and a doubling of referral rates. Sound familiar?
Inevitably, sharing information on social media sites reinforces and maintains symptoms. Teenage girls are particularly susceptible to developing similar symptoms out of empathy and emotional connection.
In the UK we have a good number of wise, thoughtful and experienced clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists researching and writing on gender dysphoria in children and young people. Imagine if the GIDS model of care had been developed by the following professionals.
Thread.
In March 2018 Margaret McCartney wrote this for the BMJ. Back then you didn't see even cautious pieces like this.
"Yet playing with dolls and liking dresses doesn’t make children female, just as playing with trucks and liking mud doesn’t make them male."
James Caspian @jamesfreespeech is applying to the European Court of Human Rights for a hearing of his case against Bath Spa University for preventing his research into #detransitioners.
“Some of the people I spoke to said they were too traumatised to speak about their experiences, which proved it was even more important to research the issue, not less."
“I was astonished therefore that a university could censor a research project on the grounds that what people ‘might’ post on social media may be detrimental to the reputation of the university.”
A judicial review is a legal course of action whereby someone can challenge a decision of a public body on the grounds that it is unfair, illegal or irrational. Court doesn't look at the merits, but the process and legality of the policy.
Issue at heart of the case was consent, whether informed consent in the legal sense can be given. Court found children under the age of 18 do not have capacity to give informed consent, children under 13 never, older children need to apply to court of protection.